Information Technology Reference
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send requests to appropriate registered users, based on their interests and
expertise, for the creation of required Representation Information
The Orchestration functionality is domain independent in that it needs no
embedded domain specific knowledge in order to match keywords specifying
gaps to people, although clearly some domain specific thesauri could help give
a wider set of relevant matches.
16.2.1.3 RepInfo Gap Manager
The RepInfo Gap Manager component embodies a small but essential application of
Knowledge Management techniques to preservation. Its main purpose is to assist in
identifying gaps which have arisen as a result of changes in hardware, software,
environment and Knowledge Bases of Designated Communities. This has been
discussed extensively in Chap. 8 .
The changes are notified by human participants in the preservation process.
The RepInfo Gap Manager knows of the existing dependencies between pieces
of Representation Information, working closely with one or more instances of the
Registry/Repository. The labels in the Registry/Repository capture those dependen-
cies. The changes imply that gaps in the Representation Information network will
have arisen, which must be filled. Human participants must be alerted and requested
to provide new Representation Information to fill those gaps. The human participa-
tion may not always be necessary; the RepInfo Gap Manager may be able to bring in
Representation Information from another, existing, source to fill the gap - although
this would have to be checked by humans.
As an example of these gaps we can look at the dependencies in the
Representation Information about a piece of astronomical data (repeated for con-
venience from Sect. 6.3.1 ). FITS is a standard data format that is used in astronomy.
To understand a FITS file one needs to understand the FITS standard which is in
turn described in a PDF document. To understand the keywords contained in a FITS
file one needs to be able to understand the FITS dictionary (that explains the usage
of keywords). Figure 16.3 illustrates these dependencies.
At some particular point in time the Dictionary may be part of the Knowledge
Base of the Designated Community (i.e. astronomers). However there may come
a time when this particular type of Dictionary begins to fall from general use.
A gap in the Representation Information net will begin to appear, which must be
filled. In most cases some human participant will have to create the additional piece
of Representation Information that is required. However it may be the case that
in some separate Representation Information Network uses the same Dictionary
and provides Representation Information for the Dictionary. The RepInfo Gap
Manager may be able to deduce that the latter can be re-used in the astronomical
case.
 
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